Hi, i have a 2004 cavalier Ls 4 door sedan 2.2 ecotec 4 speed auto with approximately 100,000 on it. my question is should i consider doing the timing chain between 100 and 150,000 or is it safe to wait, i know the chain stretches at 100,000 which in my mind increases the risk the chain could snap break and blow the engine any help would be appreciated thanks.

my answer would be yes you should replace it even though I have heard of people not changing them and they have 150,000 miles. If you plan on doing it yourself it is a little lengthy process, I am in engine D & R right now and its not the hard but one of the timing chain guides is fun to get out. and just triple check and make sure everything is in time it makes it easier since our chains the marks have to line up with the copper links just make sure you have the crank, balance shafts and cams are all in time. also if you dont have access to timing marks you could try looking on here or get a hanes manuel or ask me n ill get you em

sorry i also forgot to add if you try n go to a dealership, i called one just to see the price on it n they told me $1800 and it is like an 8 1/2 hour job on mitchell on demand

almost 2 thousand dollars just to do a timing chain, i wouldn't think it would be that expensive. I would have figured maybe 4 or 500 at the very most i mean you could replace the whole engine for what your quote would cost .

yea I had no idea it was gonna be that much I am just going to do it myself now as I have 98,000 miles soo in a couple of months ill be putting in new timing chains, makes it alot easier I just did one on an engine stand.

too bad you don't live in arizona alex or you could do mine.

I talked to someone earlier today, who told me even though the chain stretches at 100,000 miles there is a tensioner that kicks in if you will and corrects the slack keeping the chain in line. My question is how long does the tensioner do that for correct the slack that is. Is it for the life of the car for 200,000 miles plus what.

yea the tensioner only accomodates for the timing chain that is connected to the crank, water pump and balance shafts, there is a seperate chain that is timed from the crank to the cams. I mean the tensioner will do its job and will accomodate for any slack. But my definite suggestion is replace it sometime soon before 150,000 atleast or if it brakes you dont have any excuse, oh yea definitely replace all guides, tensioner, water pump and timing cover gasket as well

hey i totally forgot there is another tensioner in the cylinder head on left rear of engine for the other chain

i found out as far as the timing chain itself and probably includes all of them there is no specific interval for change though i have never heard of a J having 3 or 4 seperate chains

something else i completely forgot they say when the chain is close to snapping or right before it snaps the engine becomes noisy so much so that you can hear it from inside the car if the engine is still quiet i essentially have nothing to worry about right, i mean the chain doesn't just up and break without warning you get some sort of noise don't you .

yea the ecotec has 2 chains, I am currently going to school to be an automotive technician and dont have that much experience with timing chains but what you were saying was the engine noise, I have never heard of hearing the chain growling or making noise right before it breaks but it could be possible, also going by engine noise sometimes isnt the way to go with so many moving parts, accessories running its really hard to find where that noise is coming from sometimes. but by the time you hear the chain growling it could be to late. I mean just remember to also change your oil regularly as your oil lubricates you chain

The car had 18,000 miles on it when i bought it in august of 05, in the entire time i have owned it the oil has always always always been changed every 3k miles the tranny flushed every 15,000 or so. Does the fact that i have been religious about changing the oil is that in my favor as to how long the chain itself lasts you said oil keeps it lubricated.

I mean changing the oil every 3,000 miles and using synthetic oil will help, it wont depend on how long the chain lasts but will definitely prolong the chain. I found somethin for ya bill if ya dont know that much about cars check this out it will show you exactly what to do to change your timing chain, its not exactly in order its actually for changing cam gears rods n pistons but you can prob figure it out

Nah i don't know much about cars Alex, at least not as much as i'd like i think what i need is to find someone from J body.org or ecotec power.com that lives near me. If i knew someone from the org that lived near me that knew what they were doing they could probably do the whole thing in a weekend or something.

well if you download the sport compact build book for the ecotec engine it will help you most of the way, you may just have to skip a couple steps. and just have a hanes book or somethin to show you timing marks. and to make it easy with the timing chain there are bronze links on the chain where are the marks should be lined up on

There really is no interval for a chain, If it's worn enough, then it may skip a cog or two and you'll hear it as it gets loose, plus you timing will be off and you'll have a lack of power.

I have heard that some of the earliest ecotec's have had premature breaks, but I think those ones were installed on the smaller SUV's more over the Saturn Vues, since the equinox did not even come with a 4 cyl.

My 2.2 made it to 110,000 and broke with no waring and caused all kinds of damage to the point where i put a new motor in. I bought this car new and run synthetic oil. so i say 100,000 change the timing chain!!

Kevin, yeah that's what i heard as well that there was no specific interval for the timing chains on our car i just know and this is unless i have been misinformed is that the chains tend to stretch at 100,000 miles and that that is what causes the headaches down the road. As far as the equinox that has like the 4.3 V6 doesn't it. Kevin you also say the earliest ecotecs have had premature breaks by earliest you mean 02's right Mines an 04 if the chain itself skips a cog or if the timing is far enough off your engine pretty much won't run at all right. They say on some of the chains when they are close to snapping you'll hear the noise from inside the car but not sure on that.

Yea if the chain is close to snapping you will know about it the noise will be like a can rattling inside your engine bay I would deffo change both the chains as said the last thing you want is the chain to snap especially while driving it'll rip your engine to shreds even at idle it'll do a lot of damage over here Vauxhall made a bodge up with the cam chain the jet that feeds the oil into the cam chain was to small and getting blocked there's no end of pre 2003 2.2s with the cam chain snapping I mean Vauxhall knew they had an issue with this and that it was their fault but they did not even do a recall or pay for any damage done to cars that the chain snapped on even though they did give a warning to all pre 2003 owners that their cam chain was at major risk of snapping

but as long as you have an 04 or 05 you should be good right, if you change it the second you hear the noise from what your describing alan it sounds like the sound gets a lot louder when you accelerate.

Any idea if the timing chain issue is still a problem? I have a 2006 Cobalt SS 2.4L. It has 15k miles on it now. My brother recently had a 2008 Malibu rental car with a 2.2L. We were both impressed with the car's build quality, power and mileage. He is in the market for a new car but heard bad things about the 2.2L timing chains.

Are both timing chains the same? I have looked for replacement chain kits, and they only come with one chain. I have an 02 with 100k moles on it, and it has a click that Im pretty sure is one of the links on the chain. Im going to take it to a guy I deal with a lot, but he hasn't ever worked on this particular engine before, so Im trying to get all the parts he'll need.

Also, I heard that it takes special tools to change the timing chain on one of these, but I haven't seen anything about it. Is it true?

no special tools are needed, no, they are not the same chain, you have a timing chain and a balance shaft chain, Theoretically, these chains never need to be replaced, on the 02 american ecotecs there was a problem causing the chains to fail, but they fixed that for 03 and on, both chains have tensioners and they compensate all the way until the chain fails, so, once again theoretically, these chains are good for the life of the engine. I've heard of an ion going for 345 or so thousand miles and the chain not failing, and no failures that I've heard of on ions, though plenty have failed on L series cars.

i have an 03 and the timing chain had failed but i had also ask gm about carew for these parts and they say every 100,000 miles. these are not a maintenance free chain like on the toyotas jz motor